Word Ace Is Out For iPhone

I talked about the game a few weeks ago, after I’d been exposed to it by one of the developers at San Diego Comic-Con, but apparently it got caught up in some kind of certification purgatory and has only just now been released. Owners of the Palm Pre have been enjoying it already, no doubt making use of its handy keyboard entry system, but it’s excellent no matter where you play it.

It’s also free. This surprised me. It surprised me so much that I left a comment on their “blog,” to the effect of “What?!?! Why is this game FREE,” to which they responded:

“There are a lot of reasons - but primarily, we wanted to try something different. Heck, in part it’s inspired by PA’s user-supported model from the mid 90’s (or early aughts, but whatever - ed).

We think Word Ace is awesome. Rather than playing the insane App Store pricing lottery, we’re going to give players the option to pay whatever they want for the game, from $0 on up.

If you want extra chips, they’ll be available (in addition to the 1,000 you get every day for free). If you want to just help support the game, we’ll have donation options available, and we’ll give you a star by your icon for the next 30 days to show other people you’re helping support the game.

The whole idea is basically that you can play as much as you want, and pay whatever you want. We think Word Ace is the kind of game that people will love, and we hope they’ll choose to support its continued development.”